Leap of Faith
by Sylver Shadows
Summary: One year post the inception job the group are together for Christmas. One man will change their lives for years to come.


The glittering sky was filled with stars on the night of Christmas Eve. Ariadne was sitting on the porch of Cobb's house. Cobb had invited her, Arthur, and Eames over for their Christmas celebration. It had been about a year since she had seen any of them. None of them had changed much except for Cobb. He seemed more at peace than she had ever seen him.

"Isn't it cold out here," asked Eames standing in the door way to the house. He had a grin on his face and was dressed casually, just like Ariadne.

"I've always found the cold comforting," Ariadne responded before standing and following Eames into the house. Cobb was sitting with Arthur discussing what the two of them had been up to. Being ten Cobb's children were already asleep and it left the four of them the only ones awake.

"I've heard that Saito is doing well," Arthur says to Cobb.

"I hear he's treated all of you well for your parts in the inception job," Cobb says standing and pulling out three, small, well wrapped boxes.

"It's tradition an old tradition in my family that the host gives the guests one gift on the night before," Cobb explains handing each of them a box with their respective names on it.

Eames eagerly rips apart the wrapping on his box to reveal yet another box. This one made of wood. Slowly he removed the lid from the box to reveal a black poker chip that had the words "somnium aeternum" inscribed along the edge. After opening his box Arthur found a watching inscribed with the same statement.

"I wonder what's in Ariadne's box," Eames says sarcastically.

"Dream Forever," Arthur says and all heads turn to him, "It's what the statement means. I took Latin in high school."

As Ariadne reaches for the wrapping paper a blast outside tears apart one of the windows.

"Get down!" Yells Cobb as the four of them dive for cover. Gun fire suddenly riddles the walls of Cobb's house and then all sound stops. Cobb reaches and hand on the counter feeling around for a weapon of any kind, but just as his hand grabs the butt of a knife the gunfire begins again.

"Show yourselves or we'll blow whole damn building to pieces," Yells a voice. Ariadne thought it sounded slightly British, but wasn't sure. She knew one thing thought, that whoever was talking couldn't be more than twenty four. The voice was distinctly young.

"I'm giving you five seconds Cobb or I'll order my soldiers to rip apart the upper floor with gunfire," The voice yells again.

Instantly Cobb stands up from his position from behind the counter. He signals the others to do the same and they all do so, slowly and cautiously. The four of them are all staring out into the darkness that surrounds Cobbs house when they hear the sound of footsteps. What appears from the darkness suprises them all.

Three people appear from the darkness, two boys and one girl. The one in lead looked to be about twenty four. He was followed by the other two who couldn't have been much older. The three of them were armed to the teeth with weapons. They all held rifles and all wore black clothing, but what was strange was that the two boys each had two swords at their hips. The girl had a long metal staff on her back that had a small purple gem embedded in it. Even stranger was the hair color of the boy in front. His hair was silver as the moon and his eyes were black as night. The other boy had short black hair with green eyes. The girl had short blonde hair and bright blue eyes.

"Thank you for not making us kill you or your kin," The one at the front says bowing to them. Even though he wasn't on guard the other two had their rifles sighted on the four of them.

"What do you want," Arthur asks.

"My name's Sylver thank you for asking," The one at the front says signaling the other two to let their weapons down.

"What do you want," Arthur asks again.

"What do you think I want. What is it anybody wants when they track you four down," Sylver says walking towards Cobb.

"You want us to extract for you?" Cobb asks.

"Yes, in a sense," Sylver says walking toward Arthur.

"I'm interested," Eames says drawing everyone's attention, "Maybe just to figure out what they want us to do."

"Ah, you're interested in what I have in mind," Sylver says walking back to his allies, "A year ago it shocked the world when Robert Fischer dissolved his father's company. Everyone was dumbfounded as to why he did that. My associates and I knew why. You infiltrated his head and planted an idea which grew to become his own. We need a squad with your skills."

"You still haven't told us what you want done," Cobb says.

"I cannot tell you unless you completely agree to help me. It is the nature of my work that it remains in the shadows. I hope you understand consider your work is very similar. I can tell you that if you agree to help me that the reward will be what I can show you about dreams," Sylver says turning to his associates.

"I'm interested," states Ariadne.

"You can't be serious," Cobb asks.

"I'm taking a leap of faith and going with Ariadne on this one," Arthur says.

"Cobb before you say how crazy this all is, maybe Ariadne should open her package. I'm sure you'll all be interested as to what's inside," Sylver says handing the displaced box to Ariadne. Finaly opening the box she reveals a necklace inscribed with the same thing as the other two gifts, but there was also a note.

"Go ahead. Read it aloud," Sylver says turning from the four of them.

"The real world is what you make it out to be. Let your mind wander and the world can become anyting one desires," Ariadne read aloud.

"I…I didn't put that in the box," Cobb says walking towards Ariadne like Arthur and Eames were doing.

"Your right, you didn't. I did. You did say that though. Once before in a failed job," Sylver says, "Or did you? Or did someone incept it in your head. You live in a world of impossiblities. A world of paradoxes. Our world is flawed which makes it perfect, yet a perfect world has no flaws."

"You haven't aged," Cobb stutters.

"Your right. I haven't, yet another paradox I can answer if you work with me," Sylver says to the four of them.

"Sylver, Cops are coming," says the other boy.

"I hear them Shao, but I can't rush their decision," Sylver says to the other boy who must be Shao.

"What would the job involve?" asks Cobb.

"The first would be a test. Can you successfully extract something from my mind even with my help," Sylver says.

"How is that a test," Eames asks.

"Take a leap of faith and find out," Sylver says grinning.

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading! <strong>

**Sorry it's so short I really just wanted to get this up. **

**Please Review!**


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